The Concord Monitor, July 14:

History is usually forged by way of the slow burn. The most important parts of the American story are not often singular events, such as the Dec. 7, 1941, bombing of Pearl Harbor or the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, but rather chapters that become cohesive in time. Although there are big moments within these broader stories – presidential elections, wars, Supreme Court rulings, detente, major policy shifts – the dates are rarely evocative.

That changes when the slow burn becomes a fire.

Think of the summer of 1967, when the United States both pulled together and came apart at the seams. The “Summer of Love” that rippled outward from San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury neighborhood shares space on the timeline with the “Long, Hot Summer” of blood-soaked race riots in Boston, Tampa, Buffalo, Newark, Minneapolis, Detroit, Washington, D.C. – more than 150 in all. Or the summer of 1969, when the dizzying heights of the moon landing and Woodstock were countered with the lows of Chappaquiddick, Charles Manson and, of course, Vietnam. In the 1960s and early ’70s, there was always Vietnam.

Half a century later, it’s the middle of July. This feels like one of those summers.

Zoom all the way out, and you see a backdrop of climate change, war, guns, contentious politics and precarious race relations. Zoom in a little and you see the Islamic State, masses of refugees, two polarizing presidential candidates and a black president trying to heal racial wounds through little more than the eloquence of his words. Look even closer and you begin to make out details in Orlando, Baton Rouge, Minnesota, Dallas. You can see the faces of 49 dead at Pulse, and the blood as it flows from Alton Sterling and Philando Castile. You can see the fallen protectors – Brent Thompson, Patrick Zamarripa, Michael Krol, Lorne Ahrens and Michael Smith – and their opposites, Omar Mateen and Micah Johnson. Off in the distance you can see the throngs who swear there is no gun problem in America, who believe the fictions of the gun lobby more than they believe the blood and anguish they see with their own eyes.

Notice, too, all of the Republican politicians who cultivate fear and disharmony in order to reap votes.

If you listen closely you can hear them: Illegal immigrants, Muslims, Planned Parenthood, Democrats – they are the enemies, the ones who want to steal your American dream. That dire warning is issued by the same party that for eight years blocked American progress because its leaders didn’t like the man America chose as its president, twice. This is the party that has denied a hearing for a qualified Supreme Court nominee for that same reason.

From their wholly imagined position on moral high ground, its members are now poised to choose as their presidential nominee a man so clearly unfit for the job that “Campaign 2016” feels like Candid Camera.

Many Republican leaders recognize how unfit he is, though, so while they will support his candidacy and vote for him, they won’t endorse him. And still that old practical joker Allen Funt won’t show his face.

The history of this summer is still being written, and we hold out hope that it will be remembered as a season that began with violence and discord and ended with peace and reason.

We hope it will be a season defined by political bravery rather than expediency.

We hope compassion replaces anger.

Above all, we hope.